An Intersection On Three Axes
When you have an intersection of public money – software project – no testing, you’re achieving a singularity of gonnagobadly.
Latest example: Queensland (Australia) Health’s new payroll system.
Look at this recipe of success with its pinch of simpleton’s drive for simplicity and its dash of “deadline-at-any-cost.”
Among the board’s decisions was to change the definition of severity one and severity two defects so the project could pass exit criteria.
During testing, the board decided not to undertake a full parallel pay run test because of the size and complexity of the task.
In January, the testing company suggested either the rollout be delayed until a full system and integration test was done, or the board accept that untested scenarios might not go to plan.
The board chose to accept that risk over delaying the rollout.
You can guess how well that went given it’s in CIO magazine.
On the plus side, it was only $24 million over budget, only 60%. Here in the United States, you don’t get enough code written for government projects with a mere 60% overrun to test at all.
(Link seen on Cartoontester’s Twitter feed.)
